LEGAL BOOZE IS NO EXCUSE FOR LEGALIZING DRUGS

A Readers' Forum letter writer uses the slaying of a Drug Enforcement
Administration agent by a drunk colleague with a history of alcohol
problems as an excuse to disband the DEA "Alcohol is a drug, Dec. 27". The
convoluted logic is that alcohol is also a drug and that it and other drugs
are a social problem, not a legal problem. Nonsense!

Drug addiction and its physiological and psychological consequences are
medical issues. The anti-social and violent behavior of those under its
influence is a criminal-justice issue. An August 1997 study published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that nondrug
users who live with illegal-drug users have more than an 11 times greater
chance of being the victim of a homicide than if they lived in a drug-free
home. It was 1.7 times higher if they lived with an alcohol user.

A May 1997 study of domestic violence reported in JAMA found that 92
percent of the assailants in the study reportedly had used alcohol or other
drugs on the day of the assault. Common sense applies. Are people more
likely to assault their loved ones, get in bar fights, have accidents,
commit crimes, etc., intoxicated or sober? Alcohol is legal, and dealing
with crimes committed by those under its influence is the most expensive
single expenditure of law-enforcement funds and assets. An estimated seven
to 10 times as many Americans use alcohol as use illegal drugs. If as many
people were using illegal drugs as are using alcohol, the current rate of
crime would pale by comparison. We live with the harm of alcohol, but that
is no reason to legalize more mind-altering drugs.

We need to reduce the demand for drugs by improving and expanding law
enforcement, education, prevention, research, and
rehabilitation-and-recovery programs.

Wayne J. Roques
Pembroke Pines